In Search of the Yeti was a GI Joe Adventure Team set. I thought it would be fun to do my own version of the set.
I didn't like the GI Joe yeti very much (it is white instead of reddish brown and too big),
so to start I made my own creature. I started with a Gen. Ursus figure from the remake movie The Planet of the Apes.
I needed the hands and face. Unfortunately, the lower torso and legs were terrible (no articulation to speak of, just smooth black plastic), so I
used the lower body from another figure. In both cases, the feet were far too small. I haven't fixed that yet. I remodeled the face, added
teeth and a different nose using Sculpey, then repainted the exposed skin and used craft and goat hair to cover the body. The lama is a 21st
Century body with a head I sculpted and cast myself. The headress is Sculpey and is the main reason I added a lama. I really wanted that hat!
His robes are from Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, redyed, worn
upside down and otherwise modified. (The Liam Neeson figure who was wearing the robes was made into my custom Rob Roy figure.)
The prayer wheel (which really has Om Mane Padme Hum in Tibetian script) is made from a small wooden spool and bits
and pieces from the extras box.
The expedition search crew comes from a variety of sources, with much changing of heads and hands, especially on the female figures. Most of the female figures started as
Barbie clones or came from the Xena: Warrior Princess series. Neither set of figures has good articulation or hands, so I transferred the heads and used extra
gloved hands from other sets. Gear is also from a variety
of sources. Much of the filler climbing gear I made, with nuts of Sculpy and wire, carabiners from paper clips, and so on. Slings are ribbon and the racks (shoulder straps to carry the hardware)
are nylon tape. Some of the carabiners and the belay/descent devices were from 21st search and rescue figure sets. The climbing rope is reepschnur from REI, and
the pitons are sewing pins. The cliff is made from solid foam insulation carved with a hot knofe and painted.